United Nations Children's Fund

By : Alankar Agnihotri
Introduction

United Nations Children's Fund is an

international organization.

After the end of World War II in 1946, The United

Nations (UN) established a program aimed to provide
the basic necessities of life to famine and disease
ridden children in Europe. On the 11th of December,
1946, UNICEF was born. At that time, its name was
United Nations International Children's Emergency
Fund. In 1953, United Nations International Children's
Emergency Fund dropped the word Emergency from
its name. Its name became United Nations Children's
Fund.
Introduction

UNICEF was created for the purpose of addressing

the needs of underprivileged children which
include diminishing the prevalence of disease,
malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and violence while
ensuring all children have access to quality
education.

UNICEF has been working for over 60 years in

different countries all over the world. In 1965,
this organization received the Nobel Peace Prize
for its work. But, many people and governments
have not always praised the work of the UNICEF.

.
 Objectives
UNICEF has decided the following 5 areas as priority or main areas:

* Some other priority areas are the child in the family, and sports for development.
 Partnerships and
Partner groups
UNICEF is funded exclusively by voluntary
contributions, and the National Committees
collectively raise around one-third of UNICEF's
annual income. This comes through
contributions from corporations, civil society
organizations and more than 6 million
individual donors worldwide.

They also rally many different partners –

including the media, national and local
government officials, NGOs, specialists such as
doctors and lawyers, corporations, schools,
young people and the general public – on issues
related to children’s rights. UNICEF relies on
contributions from governments and private
donors and UNICEF's total income for 2008 was
$3,372,540,239.
 Partnerships and
Partner groups
Civil Society
UNICEF is not funded exclusively by voluntary
contributions, and the National Committee
collectively raise around one-third of
UNICEF's annual income.
This comes through contributions from Outcomes
corporations, civil society organizations and Academia for Global
more than 6 million individual donors & Media Children Programme
worldwide. Broadly categorise in following Partnerships
four:
• Global Programme Partnerships
(GPP)
• Civil society
• Corporate Sector Corporate partners
• Academia and media
Global Programme
Partnerships
•UNICEF in 80 GPPs with 40 focusing on
health and HIV/AIDS

•UNICEF’s roles
Host:
►e.g. UN Girls Education Initiative
Other Governance role
►in 33 GPPs, e.g Sub Committee on Nutrition
Partner :
►UNAIDS
-Collaborator :
- ►Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB & Malaria
The international system of
development finance is expanding
Public Private

Other
Bilateral Multilateral Private
GPPs NGOs private
Donors Donors for profit
non profit

GFATM
22 DAC donors World Bank
International
Foundations Firms
NGOs
Incl. bilateral
IMF
GAVI
development
banks and
agencies UNDP Global Households
National NGOs
Environment in donor
(e.g. remittances Commercial
and other private Banks
EC Facility countries
transfers)

Regional Fast Track

Other OECD dev. banks & National NGOs
donors agencies
Initiative/ in developing Private Investors
(non-DAC) Education for countries
Others, e.g. All
Islamic Dev.
Bank
Emerging donors Etc.
UN Specialised
UNICEF Agencies
…
 Corporate Sector
• Functions
– Traditional focus on resource mobilization
($117m in 2007)

• New ways of engaging with corporates

– Wider resource mobilization
– Influencing behaviour and practice of corporate
sector
– Co-development of strategic partnerships and
programmes
– Innovations for children

• Survey among corporate partners

– 628 corporate partners identified
– Problems with UNICEF’s administrative structure
– More investment in co-development of
programmes and employee motivation

UNICEF
 Civil Society and others
• Civil Society partners
– implement programmes
– generate innovative practices
– advocate for children’s rights and promote policy
– prepare for and respond to emergencies
– facilitate the participation of children and young
– UNICEF has thousands of CSO partners
– Only global partnerships are coordinated
– No data base available

• Academia and think tanks

– contribute to research and analysis
– build institutional capacity

• Media partnerships
– raise awareness about children’s rights
– provide space for child participation
UNICEF has been working in
India since 1949
Strengths and
weaknesses
Conclusion: Way forward

• All levels involved in partnerships and

collaborations, but many engagements remain
ad hoc
• More strategic and selective approach needed
• Minimise administrative burden
• Monitoring and evaluation tools needed
– to measure additional results through
UNICEF’s engagement
– to assess evolving nature and life cycle of
partnerships
– to strengthen risk management, encourage
innovation and reduce the bureaucratic
burden

UNICEF
Conclusion :
Way forward
• More strategic and selective with regards to GPPs
– Ensure better alignment with country priorities
– Greater selectivity needs to be exercised

• Develop stronger partnerships with CSOs

– Partner ↔ Contractor

• Utilise the potential of partnerships with the

Corporate Sector, while managing the risks

• Strengthen cooperation with knowledge partners

and (new) media
Reference
• Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEF
• Martigny II – Where Are We Now?, UNICEF Evaluation Office. May 2003. (MARTIGNY II, p. 2)
• Meta-evaluation of the Quality of Evaluations Supported by UNICEF Country Offices, 2000-2001. June 2003.
(EVALUATIONS)
• Multilateral Organizations Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN): Report from the PilotExercise.
December 2003.
• Evaluation of ECHO's Cooperation with UNICEF and UNICEF activities funded by ECHO.January 2004. (ECHO)
• Report of Supply Division Evalu@TING – March 30-April 1, 2004
• DFID Multilateral Assessment Framework on UNICEF – May 27th, 2004. (DFID)
• Evaluation of UNICEF strategy in India (Sept. 2007-June2013). 2009 (INDIA)
• The Mid-Term Review of the UNICEF Medium Term Strategic Plan 2002-2005, Synthesis
• Report, DPP. July 2004. (MTR)
• Managing for Results in the UN System, Joint Inspection Unit, UN Geneva, 2004 Parts I, II, III,Draft. July 2004.
(JIU)
• Global Consultation “UNICEF in a Changing World” 1-3 July 2004. Dubai Summary Report.2004. (DUBAI)
• Brizee, A. (2009) Memo Writing [online], available: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/printable/590/
[accessed 3 Oct 2009]
• UNICEF (2008) Who We Are [online], available: http://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_introduction.html
[accessed 10 Oct 2009]
For more information and interviews, please contact:
• Caroline den Dulk Chief of Communication, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-98-1810-6093; E-mail: cdendulk@unicef.org
• Geetanjali Master, Communication Specialist, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-98-1810-5861; E-mail: gmaster@unicef.org
• Sonia Sarkar, Communication Officer- Media, UNICEF India
Tel: +91-98-101-70289; E-mail: ssarkar@unicef.org
Thank you 